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TAKING A STROLL DOWN HIMMLERSTRASSE (ROAD TO PARADISE)

by Jack Berger

Since the handshake on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993 -- almost 13 years ago -- there seems to persist a willingness on the part of some Jews here in America and in Israel to overlook a reality that perhaps our Palestinian Arab "partners" are not as interested in peace as they are in victory... a victory that doesn't necessarily include Israel. Handing out celebratory sweets, the Arabs glory in emulating their Nazi mentors in their murder of Jews, but the Nazis were sane enough not to kill themselves in the process. Amiram Goldblum of Peace Now admits, "The name 'Peace Now' is very problematic... a source of embarrassment for me. I can't even put the movement's sticker on my car...I feel people would say, 'What idiot is driving this car?' I listen to people who were talking of peace yesterday...These people don't understand anything. They use a different part of the brain when compared to people who witness reality as it is." Jews owe the moral obligation to our enemies not to encourage them. But some Jews, blinded by their delusional agenda, are no different from those who denied the organized extermination of the six million Jews of Europe. Their denial must be recognized as a mental disorder.

Yet also afflicted with this blindness have been successive Israeli governments, their consuls general and their ambassadors who have watched Jews being blown up yet turned away from the reality with feeble rationalizations and the perverted Orwellian-speak that dead Jews were somehow "sacrifices for peace." Equally culpable are sanctimonious organizations such as AIPAC, Peace Now and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom that, like sheep, support each Israeli government regardless of its policies. In acquiescing, the blood of innocent Jews is on their hands as well. In an interview with a homicide bomber caught before he could commit his act, he related the following: "The Israeli Left Wing and your 'peace camp' are what encouraged us to continue carrying out our suicide bombings. When we heard of elite soldiers refusing to serve, it strengthened our confidence... The disengagement from Gaza is proof of our victory."

Recently a Christian radio commentator lashed out at Israel as being suicidal. "Where is the Israel of 1967? Where is the Israel of Entebbe? No wonder Jews are running from Judaism -- Israel has become an embarrassment. Israel is proving terror wins!" In adopting a national policy best described as suicidal, successive Israeli governments, from Rabin to Olmert, have been strengthening the resolve of Israel's enemies. Over a year before the withdrawal, an Arab in East Jerusalem told me that if Israel pulls the Jews out of Gaza, it will be a tremendous victory for Hamas. How come an Arab on the streets of Jerusalem knew more than all the international experts who were shocked by the Hamas landslide victory? Israel's humiliating, self-destructive retreat convinced the Arabs to elect Hamas. Hamas had delivered victory. Forget the media spin -- Abu Mazen is not a moderate. He's an Arab with a European tailor, looking for a big paycheck. It wasn't Fatah's corruption that cost it the election, it was Hamas' strength and resolve that the people voted for. And since Abu Mazen is so corrupt and everyone knows it, why have Israel, the U.S. and the EU continued to support him? Truth is, he promised nothing more than to bring Hamas into his government, but Hamas hardly needed his help! Remember that Abu Mazen was elected president while Hamas stood on the sidelines and before "Hamas forced Israel out of Gaza." If the vote for president were held today, no doubt Hamas would win by a landslide.

Today the new Minister of Education of Kadima, Meir Sheetrit, intoned, "We no longer have any ideologies, that's our uniqueness. [Is this something any normal person would be proud of?] We are no longer carrying the baggage of the legacy of Jabotinsky or Berl Katznelson on our backs ... there is nothing to be afraid of." Soon after his demented ode to nothingness, nine Jews were blown up in Tel Aviv. Today the IDF intercepts 10 to 15 suicide bombing attempts each day. And then there are the leftist agent-provocateurs of the Israel Policy Forum who hosted Ehud Olmert in New York and cheered when he lamented, "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." Might those warm words be a rousing encouragement to the Kamakazi Arab murderers? But although Ehud is tired of fighting Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Fatah, he doesn't seem tired of fighting against Jews, in places like Amona or recently in Hebron. If what Ehud wants is solace and a warm bed, he can always get it from his leftist-extremist wife Aliza, who is a charter member of "Women in Black," an organization of Arabs and Jews who support an Arab takeover of Israel. At another leftist love-fest, Ehud reported that the pullout from Gaza "will bring more security, greater safety, much more prosperity, and a lot more joy for all the people of the Middle East. [I'm not so sure if it will bring joy to the Jews, but I'm sure that Hamas had a big smile for the joy they see in their future.] We want them to be our friends, our partners, our good neighbors... Friendship is within reach if we will be smart, if we will be prepared to take risks [the risks they've taken so far have only raised piles of dead Jews] ...and if we will spare no effort to convince them, not by fighting with them but by sitting with them and talking with them... so the Middle East will indeed become what it was destined to be... a paradise for all the world!" Well, the homicide bombers are taking tickets and lining up because paradise and virgins are just around the next cloud.

Yet, Jews must give credit where credit is due. In 2000 at Camp David, Yasser Arafat was scorned for rejecting, as Dennis (the Muddled East expert) Ross said, the best deal the Palestinians would get -- all of Gaza, 95 percent of the West Bank, and assorted other goodies, like part of Jerusalem -- if only Yasser would agree to a Clintonian deal with Israel. Yasser said no, began murdering Jews at a record pace, and after the brilliance of the not-so-best-or-brightest -- without any agreement, and with all the intellectual shrewdness of the Three Stooges --- Israel withdrew from Gaza, handed Hamas a stunning (democratic, no less) victory, and now claims that by 2010 the Palestinian Arabs will get almost everything they would have gotten at Camp David -- without giving up anything. You have to give the guy credit -- he knew his bungling negotiating partners -- Clinton, Ross and Barak -- and for this alone he should have received the Nobel Prize. For the shame of their ineptitude and stupidity, the Jews should return the illustrious Nobel prize rather than defame it.

If history is any indication, as HaAretz columnist Gideon Levi once noted, "the Arabs' gain has always come about through force... Egypt's surprise attack [Yom Kippur War] ended with the surrender of the entire Sinai, even the last of Israel's holdings, Yamit... the first intifada gained them the Oslo Agreement, the safe ensconcing of Arafat in the West Bank... and the withdrawal of Israel from major West Bank cities and most of Gaza... the repeated violence of Hizbollah brought about Israel's hasty withdrawal from Lebanon... and it was the bloody and painful terrorist attack on a bus in Jerusalem that motivated Amram Mitzna, head of the Labor Party, to declare he is prepared to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip... everything they have gained, and Israel's capitulation, have always come about after intense terrorist violence... bolstering the Palestinians in their determination... The shortsighted Jewish [peace movements] are playing into the hands of Israel's foes and are in large part responsible for the continuation and extension of the terror."

Yet recently a number of Chicago-area rabbis were signatories to a letter urging President Bush to overlook Hamas' numerous, celebrated suicide bombings, overt pronouncements to destroy Israel, and its holy charter mandating the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. Believing Hamas will betray its voters the way Sharon betrayed his voters, their letter advocates "bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, which is the only path to achieve true peace and security for both peoples." Where have they been for the last 13 years? Back to the negotiating table that caused the slaughter of over 1500 Jews? These rabbis, including Herbert Bronstein, Andrea London, Peter Knobel, Brant Rosen, Arnold Wolf and Maralee Gordon, seem stuck, eyes wide shut, in a mental paralysis. Which of the words "We Will Destroy All Of Israel" don't they understand? Is it that their personal bias blinds them to the reality, or is it just liberal arrogance? Abusing their pulpits' power to influence by peddling their pathetically distorted perspectives, these terrorist enablers shirk their moral obligation not to encourage Hamas. Sixty-five years ago, rabbis here and in Europe refused to open their eyes and mouths to the reality of what was going on in Europe. Those rabbis too wanted peace... and now six million rest in peace in their European graveyard.

"Instead of an inspiration to potential saints, much rather an encouragement to potential criminals..." Let us not be lulled by the rabbinic deniers of reality. Let us not encourage our enemies to murder Jews. Let's bring back the Israel of 1967 and of Entebbe, for to again watch silently as Arab murderers boldly proclaim their mission, we cannot say we didn't know...

Jack Berger writes on a variety of Middle East and Jewish subjects, including politics and the Diaspora in relation to the history of the Jewish people.